How Long Does Wine Keep

So far as storing wine is concerned many people are skeptical about keeping opened bottles of wine. A few of the guys and gals I know really cannot bear to see a bottle of wine on the shelve they would rather decanter it into their mouths, but the excuse they give is that the wine will “sour”. Ha!

The fact is that your bottle of wine will last for as long as you keep it in the bottle and corked. Now, I ma not claiming that wine does not go bad so to speak, however, it will definitely out live you so long as you take care of it. After all you have the best wines than have been aged for over 60 years, right?

It is like this. The air we breathe has bacteria called “Aerobacter” When this bacterium comes in contact with alcohol it turns the alcohol into vinegar. This is what you need to prevent. The only way to do this is to keep the bottle of wine air tight when you store it away. The air that gets into the bottle does have some “Aerobacter” present but it I not enough to sustain the bacteria long enough for it to multiply and destroy the wine.

But just for your knowledge, red wine lasts longer than white wines for the abovementioned reason. Red wines have less alcohol and more sugar, sugar being a preservative and there not being enough alcohol to turn into vinegar. Alcohol also deteriorates in taste and strength when it comes in contact with oxygen so white wines (rich in alcohol) deteriorate faster. So as a rule if you have a bottle that contains less than half its capacity of wine, decant it into a smaller bottle when you store it away and you can keep it for a few years at least – if you can ward off the temptation to gulp it down that is.